The invention relates to an apparatus, for the control of the tilting movement and sliding movement of the cover of slidable-tiltable roofs of vehicles, having a hub on an input side, a driving pinion on an output side, an arrangement for establishing a driving connection between the hub and the driving pinion for producing a shifting movement, a reduction stage (which may be actuated by axial shifting of a control gear) for the driving of the driving pinion by way of the hub for the tilting movement with a reduced transmission ratio relative to that for the sliding movement, and with an arrangement for the automatic engagement of the reduction stage in the event that a driving of the hub starts out from a reference position of the cover in a rotational direction corresponding to the tilting movement of the cover.
In the case of a known apparatus of this kind (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 26 34 626), a crank handle is connected with a driving shaft on which the control gear is disposed in a torsionally fixed, but axially shiftable, manner. The control gear has two axial sections with variable number of teeth. One section is provided with a full toothing extending over the entire periphery, while the other section has only two groups of only three teeth, each lying diametrically opposed to one another. Depending upon the axial position of the control gear, one or the other of its sections is in engagement with a gear which is attached on a power take-off shaft running in parallel to the driving shaft. This results in a correspondingly variable transmission ratio between the driving shaft and the power take-off shaft carrying the driving pinion for the cover. The control gear, furthermore, drives a gear developed as a cam plate, in a highly reduced way, by way of an intermediate gear. The intermediate gear and the gear forming the cam plate are seated on two additional shafts parallel to the driving shaft and the power take-off shaft. A pivoting lever is in engagement with the cam plate. With the pivoting lever, the control gear is shifted on the driving shaft counter to the action of a spring in such a way that its two groups of diametrically opposed teeth come into engagement with the gear attached to the power take-off shaft, whenever, starting out from the closed position of the cover, the crank handle is turned in a direction for producing a tilting opening movement of the cover. Whenever, on the contrary, starting out from the closed position of the cover, the crank handle is turned in a direction for producing a sliding opening movement of the cover, then the full toothing of the control gear becomes effective.
The known apparatus, to be sure, has the advantage that, as a result of the reduction of the tilting movement relative to the sliding movement, a sensitive adjustment of the cover to the desired angle of tilting is achieved. Also, in the case where the crank handle is a snap handle, a snapping of the crank handle into a receiving space becomes possible in a whole series of variable sliding positions of the cover. Likewise, the selection of the respective ratio of the variable transmission for the tilting and sliding movements takes place automatically, that is to say, without any special additional effort by the user. However, in the case of the known arrangement, these advantages must be acquired with a relatively bulky construction of the control arrangement.
Thus, a primary object of the present invention is based on the task of creating a control arrangement of the initially mentioned type which has a particularly compact type of construction.
According to the invention, this object is achieved, in accordance with preferred embodiments, through the fact that the rotational axes of the hub and of the driving pinion are made to coincide, as well as through the fact that the control gear is disposed coaxially to the common axis of the rotation of the hub and the driving pinion, and that it is part of a control coupling for transferring the rotational movement from the hub to the driving pinion.
The control arrangement according to the invention permits, in the same manner as the apparatus known from the German Offenlegungsschrift 26 34 626, the automatic achievement of variable transmission ratios for the tilting and sliding movements of the cover, but in the plane perpendicularly to the driving pinion axis, requires a fraction of the mounting space needed for the insertion of the known control arrangement.
An arrangement for the control of the tilting movement and of the sliding movement of the cover of sliding-tilting roofs is also known, already, wherein the rotational axes of the hub on the input side and of the driving pinion coincide (U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,119). At the same time, however, the driving pinion is fixedly and directly connected with the hub on the input side so that in the case of the sliding movement, just as in the case of the tilting movement, a direct drive takes place, which, for example, makes a sensitive adjustment of the position of inclination of the cover impossible.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the control gear arrangement has an inside thread engaging with the outside thread of the hub, and the control gear cooperates with an interlocking means which prevents, in an angular position corresponding to a reference position of the cover, a rotational movement of the control gear and, in all other angular positions, an axial movement of the control gear. As a result of that, it is possible, in a constructionally simple manner, to take care of the necessary course of movement in the case of a shifting of the control gear.
Achievement of a compact construction of the control arrangement is further facilitated whenever the control gear is provided with an outside toothing which may be selectively brought into engagement with an inside toothing of another coupling part of the control coupling or a gear on the input side of a reduction stage, whereby effectively the control gear assumes a middle position, in the axial direction, whenever it is in an angular position corresponding to the cover reference position.
Preferably, the control gear is in its middle position in engagement with another coupling part of the control coupling, as well as with the gear on the input side of the reduction stage. As a result of that, the driving pinion on the output side for the cover is locked in the reference position of said cover.
Effectively, the control gear is resiliently biased in the direction of its middle position in the case of this embodiment.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the control gear is provided with two control gear parts that are adjustable in a limited way relative to each other in an axial direction and are connected in a torque transmittable manner with one another, the one of the gear parts having an internal thread in enagement with an external thread of the hub, while the other part of the control gear has an external toothing which may be selectively brought into engagement with the internal toothing of the coupling part of the control coupling or the gear of the reduction stage on the input side and is connected with the hub by way of a free wheeling connection for rotation. This development keeps the friction occurring in the case of switching processes particularly slight. At the same time, a spring arrangement for driving the other part of the control gear by spring force in the case of an axial shifting of one part of the control gear is, preferably, present. The one part of the control gear may effectively be disposed inside of the other part of the control gear and possibly two springs of equal strength may be provided which, on the one hand, are supported on axially and mutually opposite sides of the one part of the control gear and, on the other hand, at the other part of the control gear.
The reduction stage which may be actuated for the tilting movement of the cover, is formed, advantageously, as a planetary gear. The use of planetary gears is certainly known, per se, in hand operated driving mechanisms for moveable covers in roofs of vehicles (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 32 00 655). There, however, the planetary gear is effective only for the sliding movement of the cover and, therefore, it lacks a variable transmission ratio for two types of cover movement, which is particularly desired, because, for the two paths of movement, adjusting distances of considerably variable lengths are needed.
The other half of the coupling of the control coupling, at the same time, may form the planetary carrier of the planetary gear in the interest of minimizing the number of individual parts, while the control gear for the sliding movement of the cover, may, effectively, be brought into engagement with an internal toothing of the sun wheel of the planetary gear.
In further development according to the invention, a limiting arrangement for limiting the rotary movement of the hub, in terminal positions of the cover in both sliding and tilting movements, exists as compared to the reference position of the cover. Furthermore, an additional locking arrangement for the releasable locking of the hub may be present in the position corresponding to the reference position of the cover. Such a locking arrangement is desirable, above all, in the case of control arrangements with a crank handle, in order that the user may recognize the reaching of the closed position of the cover without having to look at the cover and, as a result of that, being distracted from observation of the road.
Part of the limiting arrangement and/or the locking arrangement is advantageously a rotatable construction part (control ring) disposed substantially concentrically to the common axis of hub and driving pinion, which construction part is driven by way of an additional reduction stage in such a way that, in case of a rotation of the hub between the positions corresponding to the terminal positions of the cover, it carries out a rotation of less than 360 degrees.
At the same time, the further reduction stage, effectively, has a stationary gear with a toothing concentric to the common axis of hub and driving pinion, which toothing is connected in a meshing engagement with the toothing of the toothed ring which is rotatable on an eccentric connected for rotation with the hub around an axis which, as compared to the common axis of hub and driving pinion, is displaced radially by an amount which is approximately equal to the difference of the circle radii of the base of the toothings of the gear and gear ring. This ensures a particularly space-saving construction even for a control arrangement supplemented in such a way.